January Blackberry Picking

Yesterday we went to a nearby farm to pick some blackberries! It was a warm sunny day with a hot sun and blue skies, perfect to get out of the house for a bit.  Since it was a rare free Sunday (that is, no market that morning), we wanted to go out and do something, but we didn't really feel up to a bushwalk or want to drive very far.  A 'u-pick' berry farm outside of Arding seemed like a nice compromise: not a lot of hassle to get there and back, plus we'd get to bring home the fruits of our labours.

I had never been to Arding before (and to be fair, I still haven't.) Arding is a tiny rural community west of the New England Highway between Armidale and Uralla.  The berry farm is on the far side of the crossroads of the "town" and to get there we drove south almost all the way to Uralla on the highway before turning westward onto a winding road and then heading north.

The only straight stretch of the road as it meets the New England Hwy

It's a pleasant drive, typical of the fields and forests of this part of New England. Not all of the roads out to these rural communities are sealed, but this particular one is. Also typical of this area, the road is quite narrow and winding. The posted speed limit is 100km/h but it's hard to imagine that with the 50km/h turns.

Berry Good: probably the world's number one
berry-related business/branding name.

We couldn't help but remember all our u-pick in Michigan
which were always crowded and swamped with people.
To contrast, we saw about ten other people here.

It has actually been quite cool since just before Christmas and hasn't felt much like summer, but this week will be warm again. Starting yesterday and today we're back to 28C (82F) and by Thursday the forecast rises to 34C (93F). It'll be hot!  The blackberries were just starting to ripen and the pickings were pretty slim, but we figured we could drop in again later in the week when all those berries are ripe.

For ever five unripe berries there was one ready to go.

Despite the 'slim pickins' we got ourselves quite a treat

Just over a kilo of berries (more than two pounds)

The farm is not small by any means, but not huge, either--but there was plenty of room for everyone there to pick plenty of ripe berries. There weren't more than ten people under the nets at any one time: there were two families leaving when we arrived, and another group came while we were there. It was pretty hot under the sun: the bird netting didn't provide any shade, of course! We wore our hats and long-sleeves, but we picked our tubs full pretty quickly anyway and wouldn't have had to worry about sunburn.

Bird protection

It was hard not to think about Michigan and remember the u-pick strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries we enjoyed while we lived in Ann Arbor. It's very different here of course, with so few people: in Michigan you absolutely had to be there first or nothing would be left (for strawberries) or it would be crowded and noisy with all the people and families (everything else.) Here, it's a much more laid-back experience.

But: just so we don't forget we're in Australia, we saw a triple-decker sheep trailer on our way back into Armidale. (That's something we never saw in Michigan.)

The three levels of sheep: baa - ram - ewe?

And: to finish our perfect berry adventure, Reid made a blackberry crumble!  It's been a long time since we've had blackberries, and even longer since we've had a crumble. Next weekend is likely to be very busy with the market prep (or maybe not - it's cold weather forecast which means no drinks which means much less prep to do) but if we get some more berries maybe we'll treat ourselves to a blackberry cobbler or coffeecake. Yum!

 Before (before baking)

After (before eating)

Brisbane Southbank Parklands

The Nepalese Temple

An Eastern Water Dragon chillin' in the pond.

Really interesting flowers along the river, in white and red.

Strawberries at the epicurious garden

Lemon blossoms

Pepper blossoms

Nectarine flowers

Papaya

Blue Java Banana

Callistemon, red bottlebrush.

I don't think I've ever seen red strawberry flowers before!

Mosaics set in the walkway along the river walk

Really awesome vine-shaded walkways.

If we lived in Brisbane I'm sure we would
ride the ferris wheel, some day.

The Black Sapote

Probably on par with custard apples and the feijoa, the black sapote (Diospyros nigra) was probably the strangest Australian-grown un-Australian fruit we've had a chance to try.  Related to the persimmon, it's native to Mexico and Central America and we had never seen one before.

It looked like a gigantic green tomato, so soft when it was ripe that
the flesh would indent where you touched it.

(Unfortunately it was pretty dark so none of our pictures are very good.)

It came from Coffs Harbour, which is where we get pretty much all of our interesting fruit.  When we bought it looked like an enormous green tomato, and the woman at the market told us it would be ripe when it was soft and had turned darker in color.  She also warned us it would not be pretty.  And indeed it was not.  We had to wait a few weeks (this was actually about a month ago so our house was still pretty cool all the time) but when it did ripen, it was dark and soft, and when we cut it open it was so... gooey inside.

It's also called the chocolate pudding fruit, but that's more for the appearance and texture rather than the actual taste.  Reid and I both agreed it seems like the color and texture was the only part of it that had any semblance to chocolate pudding, and it had no chocolate taste whatsoever.  As far as the flavor goes, we thought it sort of tasted somewhere between an avocado and a persimmon.  Sweeter than an avocado, and maybe a little more bland than a persimmon.

Sundowner Apples

Most of the apple varieties we see in the store are the same as what you'd find in the States, but we have encountered a couple new varieties (at least ones I have never seen before.)  Last week we bought Sundowner apples for the first time, which were pretty tasty! We ate them plain in lunches but this variety from Western Australia are also recommended for baking.  (If you've seen Sundowners in the US, please let me know.)

We actually haven't eaten too many apples here, actually--when we first arrived we were eating a lot of pears from our favorite fruit vendor at the Farmers Market, and lately we've been enjoying oranges and mandarins. (If you're curious, the Aussie pronunciation is mandareen.)

The other "new" apple variety we've come across is Eve, which we actually only saw in the store once.. we bought it because they was on sale and since then it's disappeared from from the produce section and soon to disappear from our memory as well.  Jazz apples are also widespread: I remember when we first saw them at Busch's in Ann Arbor, imported from Australia--turns out they're from New Zealand. (Maybe they should call them Fit apples in the US?)

Otherwise it's mostly Jonathans and Jonagolds, Galas and Pink Ladies, Red and Golden Deliciouses... nothing that interesting or out-of-the-ordinary.

Love the Aussie Apple stickers with the Australia Tree.  n_n

Coffs Harbour in 27 Pictures

View of the ocean from the Big Banana

Big Banana, take one.

Big Banana, take two.

Banana tree hill

Bananas!

Bongil Bongil National Park

Beach at Bongil Bongil

Blonde ale ram.  We met a lady who LOVED this t-shirt.  Maybe she'll buy the beer!

Beach at Bongil Bongil.

Epiphytes on the rainforest walk at Bongil Bongil National Park
(It would be much later that I learned this is a elkhorn fern.)

"Cat's Mustache" plant at the botanic garden

Crane flower plant

Coffs Harbour... harbor.

Mystery plant at the botanic garden

Laughing kookaburra!  These guys are loud and crazy sounding.

Life-savers at the Sawtell beach, though as far as I can tell the uniform is the same throughout AU.
Sponsored by DHL.

Dragonfruit and bananas at the Sunday Market

Rainbow Lorikeet

Local fruit and veg

We bought some custard apples.  They look like the flesh of fish on the inside...
taste a little like mangoes.

"Musical Note Plant" at the botanic garden

Another mysterious flower at the botanic garden

Park Beach in Coffs Harbour, where we swam/boogie boarded.

White Cheesewood

First swim a success!